Thomas j



THOMAS J. SLOAN, or NEw YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS EOE INDICATINGTHE ACTION OF THE EEEiJ-PU'MP To sT'EAM-BoILEEs.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 10,432, dated January 17, 1854.

To all whom t may concern: l

Be it known that I, THOMAS J. SLOAN, of

-- the city, county, and State of New York,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the `Method Iof Regulating the Supply of Water to Steam-Boilers, of which the following is a full, clear, and eX- act description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure l, is a plan of the apparatus with parts in section; Fig. 2, a side elevation with parts in section; Figs. 3, 4, and 5, sections taken at the lines A, a, B, b, and C, 0, of Fig. l, and Fig. 6, a section through the supply cock or valve.

The same letters indicate like parts in ally the gures.

The object of my invention is to give an alarm, whenever the feed pump of a steam boiler fails to work, that warning may be given that personal attention is required to insure safety, which invention is mainly intended to be used in connection with a hydrostat or instrument for indicating and regulating the height of water in Steam boilers, secured to me byLetters Patent bearing date the 6th day of July 1852, in which the valve or cock that governs t-he quantity of water to be admitted into the boiler, is operated by any motor to insure the working thereof while at the same time the position of the said valve or cock is governed by a float within the boiler. The only danger at tending the operation of this hydrostat is the possibility of the stoppage of the said motor by any cause whatever, which danger I have avoided by an apparatus, which, in such an event, gives an alarm, to give warning that the motor and the supply pump, or

either, have ceased to operate. And the nature of my invention consists in combining with t-he motor which Operates the Supply cock or valve, and with the supply pump, or either, a mechanism that will blow a whistle, or give any other alarm, by the falling of a weight or by the tension of a spring, that personal attent-ion may be given to the apparatus when either the motor or pump fails to work.

In the accompanying drawings a, represents a steam engine which may be such as are employed for working the supply pumps of steam boilers, and b, the supply pump with the eduction pipe leading tothe boiler to be supplied; the piston of the pump being i on the end of the piston rod c, of the engine.

The piston rod c, is connected by a rod d., witha crank @,'on the crank shaft f, provided with two cams g, and 71 one of which. acts ou a lever ,.connected by a rod y', with the stem of the slide valve 7c, of the engine- This lever z', embraces the cam by which it is acted upon alternately in opposite directions; and to keep the two faces of the lever alternately ineontactzwith the cam g there isV another bifurcated levervZ, acted upon alternately in opposite direct-ions by the other cam h, and springs m, m, are interposed between the one arm of the lever z', and the two arms 4Of the lever Z, by means of which,.and the relative position of the two cams, the two faces of the leverz', are alternately .kept

in contact with the cam g, to give the re-` quired motion to the valve withoutthe jar and noise such as would be produced by a f with a pin p, that slides in a slot q, in the lower end of the arm 1", of a rock shaft-8. This slot is slightly inclined yto the line of the arm i, and shorter than the range of motion of the rod o, `so that, as the rod is carried up, when the pin p, reaches the upper end -Of the slot, it vibrates the arm in one dire/ction, and, in descending, vibrates it back, by reasonv of the line of motion of the rod being inclined to the line of the arm. This gives a reciprocating motion tol the rock shaft s, which is provided with another arm t, the end of which, during the vibration, is j .The stem of the float is adapted to slide `freely' in ways w, and that side of it toward the arm is formed with a series of Steplike projections fc, each in succession projecting farther fromfthe line of the stem, so that when Vthe float is low down, the arm t, cannot vibrate so far aswhen thefloat isup, i

of they pin p, and these spurs correspond A.

with :a series of notches or steps on the two stems y, y, of a vibrating cock or valves,

which governs the supply pipe a', leading fromthe supply pump to the boiler; andv when the iioat is down, one of the spurs ofthe rod 0, strikes oiie'of the steps oi notches on the arm of the valve'stem, which turns the said cock or valve in one direction, that- Water may .enter the boiler to supply the deficiency; and When the float is up, the other spur of the rod 0, strikes one of the steps o-r projections oii the other stem of the cock `o-r valve byV Which it is turned in the opposite direction to close the passage and prevent Water from being forced into the boiler. Iii this `ivay it will be seen that the moment the arm t, is drawn from the stein, the fioat is free to move up and down, to take its position from the height of Water in the boiler, Vand from this position, the motion of the upper end of the rod 0, relatively to the notches on the valve'stems, is determined, so that the spurs on the rod 0, act correspondingly on the valve stems to open or close it, to suit the requirements of the boiler.

The ioat and arm if, are placed Within a vessel b, connected ivith the boiler by mea-ns of pipes above and below the waterO line, so that the supply ofv Water shall be checked when there is a sufficiency of Water in the boiler and vice versa. The `float and all its connections are Within this vessel, so that it can float freely and simply regulate the range of motion of the apparatus for operating the valve or cock. Instead of placing the iioat within a vessel connected with the boiler, it may be placed directly Within the boiler.

The crankV shaft is Vprovided with a cog Wheel c', which communicates motion to the'spiiidle d of afly ball governor e', the arms of which are connected intlie usual, or any appropriate manner with the slide f', which is embraced by the end of a lever g', and the other arm of the said lever acts upon the stem 72.', of the valve z, of a steam whistle, connected in the usual manner with the boiler by the steam pipe j.

The fly balls of the governor should be made heavy so that the moment the motor ceases to operate, they will drop by gravity and operate the lever to open the vpassage leading to the Whistle to give an alarmgrbut when the engine moves at the required velocity the balls rise and draw up the lever to permit the valve to close and stop the alarm. In this Way, an alarm is always sure to be given, Whenever the motor, which operates the supply cock or valve, sto-ps, be-

cause the balls of the governor can be made so heavy as to insure the opening of the Whistle valve or the starting of any otherV alarm.

The rotating cock or valve z, for regulatpipe leading from the usupply pump, and

with the pipe Z, leading to the boiler, but when it is turned in the position represented by dotted lines, and the passage to the pipe Z', leading to the boiler is closed, the branch Way m', is in connection With the pipe a',

leading from the pump, and the main Way 7e', connects with a Waste pipe n leading to the reservoir which supplies the pump or to any other reservoir. In this Way the pump can continue to Work, notwithsanding the closing of the passageleading to the boiler. Y

It will be obvious from the foregoing that other modes may be devised for applying the principle or character of my invention, as for instance. Instead of the fly ball. governor for operating the lever to open the alarm valve, or for starting any other alarm ywhen the pump stops orfails to Work, a sufficient Weight may` be suspended to the lever, and couiiterpoised by a vessel of Water attli'e other end. And this vessel of Water should be provided Witha Waste or discharge hole'at the bottom, Which will permit the Water to run out as fast as Water is supplied to the vessel by a Wastepipe leading from the pump, so that While the pump continues to supply Water the Weight on the. lever will be held up; but when the pump fails to Work and furnish the supply to the vessel, the Water will run out, and give the preponderance to the Weight, which opens the valve and gives the alarm. And it will also be obvious that the fly ball governor, or its equivalent, Whether Working by WeightsV or springs, can be connected either with the` supply pump or with the ply pump, or with either, as specified, a`

mechanism, substaiitiallyas specified, which when the said motor and pump, or either fail to operate, shall operate-the valve of" the Whistle or other ala-rin, to give Warning that the apparatus needs personal attention with the view to perfect safety, as specified.

THOS. J. SLOAN. lllitnesses i Wir. I-I. BISHOP, CHAs. M. BAMBURGH. 

